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50 Determination Quotes to Drive You Past the Dungeon of Despair

You put them front and center, and you work hard, and you give it your all, and then…

What happens?

You “hit the wall”, as runners say.

Staying motivated to keep going is getting harder.

You wonder if you’re doing the right thing or if you should just give up, right?

You’re tired, stressed, and you don’t know when – or if – you’ll see the results of all your hard work.

When you need strength, motivation, and direction, take a few minutes to boost yourself up.

Heed the advice of the great ones who have already been where you’re at – and made it to the other side.

This list of 50 determination quotes includes quotes about strength and moving forward. There are quotes on courage and determination. And there are quotes about determination and perseverance.

Read them, hear them, and use them as the fuel you need to propel you forward – especially when the going gets tough.

Quotes about Determination and Perseverance

七転び八起き (Nana Korobi Ya Oki)

"Fall Down Seven Times, Get Up Eight"

- Japanese Proverb

"You're determined. So what? You haven't been racing naked through shark-infested waters yet. Will you be just as determined when you wash up on some deserted island, disoriented and bloody and ragged and beaten and staring into the horizon with no sign of rescue?"

"If you are determined enough and willing to pay the price, you can get it done."

- Mike Ditka

"Expect a price to be paid. Expect risk and sacrifice. Expect bumps in the road. When you hit the first pothole (and yes, it will happen) know that you are forging the process of your unfolding story."

- MJ DeMarco

"You are not the victim of the world, but rather the master of your own destiny. It is your choices and decisions that determine your destiny."

- Roy T. Bennett

"Determination is not a solitary choice but thousands of them. You cannot decide to be determined, it must occur repeatedly, concertedly, and with commitment."

- MJ DeMarco

"I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do."

- Edward Everett Hale

"If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door."

- Milton Berle

"Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever. That surrender, even the smallest act of giving up, stays with me. So when I feel like quitting, I ask myself, which would I rather live with?"

- Lance Armstrong

"Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's definition of your life, but define yourself."

- Harvey Fierstein

"Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all."

- Dale Carnegie

"A year from now you may wish you had started today."

- Karen Lamb

"The man who can drive himself further once the effort gets painful is the man who will win."

- Roger Bannister

"If drive is the fuel that keeps you motivated, determination is the long view commitment to the goal. When everyone else is done for the day, the determined stay for an extra hour honing a skill, working on their gear, or studying something new. World-class performers aren’t always the most naturally talented at their craft. They are, however, the hardest working and most determined to be the best they can be at what they do."

- Mark Divine

"Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up."

- Thomas Edison

"Do the one thing you think you cannot do. Fail at it. Try again. Do better the second time. The only people who never tumble are those who never mount the high wire."

- Oprah Winfrey

"One day or another every athlete feels like taking it easy. He stops trying to exceed his limits, and thinks he can keep winning because of his lucky star, or the bad luck of his opponents. You must overcome this negative instinct, which affects all of us, and which is the only difference between the person who wins a race, and those who lose. This is the battle you have to fight every day of your life."

- Jesse Owens

"I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying."

- Michael Jordan

"Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win when the match is even."

- Muhammad Ali

"Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I'll try again tomorrow."

- Mary Anne Radmacher

"We grow the most through quiet determination and perseverance, expressed through a commitment to doing today what others won’t."

- Mark Divine

"I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."

- Michael Jordan

"Nothing in the world can take the place of perseverance. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost legendary. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Perseverance and determination alone are omnipotent."

- Calvin Coolidge

"The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a man’s determination."

- Tommy Lasorda

"Crystallize your goals. Make a plan for achieving them and set yourself a deadline. Then, with supreme confidence, determination and disregard for obstacles and other people’s criticisms, carry out your plan."

- Paul J. Meyer

"Being challenged in life is inevitable, being defeated is optional."

- Roger Crawford

"It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer."

- Albert Einstein

"Embrace the Suck."

- Mark Divine

"Determine that the thing can and shall be done and then find the way."

- Abraham Lincoln

"If you try anything, if you try to lose weight, or to improve yourself, or to love, or to make the world a better place, you have already achieved something wonderful, before you even begin. Forget failure. If things don't work out the way you want, hold your head up high and be proud. And try again. And again. And again!"

- Sarah Dessen

"It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things."

- Leonardo Da Vinci

"We must remember that one determined person can make a significant difference, and that a small group of determined people can change the course of history."

- Sonia Johnson

"You’ve got to stay patient, stay in the moment, and keep grinding. You never know what can happen."

- Tiger Woods

"You just can’t beat the person

who never gives up."

- Babe Ruth

"Don’t let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use."

- Earl Nightingale

"The best way out is always through."

- Robert Frost

"Throw yourself into some work you believe in with all your heart, live for it, die for it, and you will find the happiness that you had thought could never be yours."

- Dale Carnegie

"I never took a day off in my twenties. Not one."

- Bill Gates

"If you are going through hell, keep going."

- Winston Churchill

"The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible."

- Arthur C. Clarke

"People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can't find them, make them."

- George Bernard Shaw

"Only he who attempts the absurd is capable of achieving the impossible."

- Miguel de Unamuno

"When life knocks you down, try to land on your back. Because if you can look up, you can get up."

- Les Brown

"It always seems impossible until it's done."

- Nelson Mandela

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

- H. Jackson Brown

"Never give up on what you really want to do. The person with big dreams is more powerful than one with all the facts."

- H. Jackson Brown

"When people are determined they can overcome anything."

- Nelson Mandela

"Life is what you make it. Always has been, always will be."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"The question isn’t who is going to let me, it’s who is going to stop me."

- Ayn Rand

"If you think you can, you can. And if you think you can’t, you’re right."

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